Winchester ‘73 (1950)

Dodge City is holding a shooting competition and the winner gets a Winchester rifle. But not just any Winchester. One in a thousand Winchesters comes out so perfect that it would be a shame to sell it. Instead they give it away. Makes perfect sense.

Lin McAdams (James Stewart) enters the competition because he knows it will attract Dutch Henry Brown, a man he needs to kill. He can’t kill him in town, so … there’s a plan someplace. Anyhow Lin wins the rifle, Dutch steals it, and off they go again.

Lin wants the MacGuffin but really needs to kill Dutch. But along the way is a hot dance hall girl (Shelley Winters) engaged to a coward with a heart of gold, Dutch’s criminal gang, and those terrible injuns! I felt the Indians were actually depicted somewhat respectfully, by 1950 standards anyhow. They were murderous warriors and the leader was played by Rock Hudson, but still. It could have been a lot worse.

Wyatt Earp was played by Grandpa Walton. A young Tony Curtis played a cavalryman. Shelley Winters didn’t think much of her role as all the men were desperate to get their hands on some gun instead of her bod. This is not entirely true, but as she is almost the only female ever on screen, she isn’t entirely wrong either.

A strength of the movie is it’s background characters. Dan Duryea is a compelling secondary villain, maybe a bit too charismatic to be the principle. He is despicable but almost likable. The cavalry sergeant, the indian trader, Marshal Earp, and many others are fully fleshed out minor characters that fit perfectly in the story’s world. Also, the details of Lin/Dutch grudge are slowly revealed changing the context of earlier conversations. Early on they both aim their rifles in the same quirky way implying a shared history.

Stewart credits Winchester ‘73 with reviving his career. He built his career in romantic comedies but that role fit him less and less. Westerns did not seem a natural fit for his erudite city-boy persona but it worked and he was reinvented. His best work was to follow.

Winchester ‘73 is essentially a revenge/man hunt film with all the Western trimmings. There is a certain awkward directness to the dialog but that’s not to say it’s poorly written. While parts are cringeworthy cliched, most is quite good. It is quite odd how everyone immediately recognizes the gun as something rare and priceless. Way sexier than Shelley. AMRU 4.